1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for observing a cell under a microscope by causing the cell to proliferate, a substrate used for the same, and a method for the manufacture thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unlike bacteria, most animal cells cannot divide or proliferate in suspension; therefore, such cells are cultured by being attached to a surface of a suitable object. In this case, the cell culture is often performed by attaching the cells to thin glass (cover glass or slide glass) or plastic whose surface is treated so that the cells can easily adhere to it. In order to know the distribution of specific protein molecules within the cells in culture, it is widely practiced to mark the protein under study with fluorescence and to observe the distribution of the specific protein molecules by using a reflected light fluorescence microscope or a confocal microscope.
In this fluorescence microscope observation, it is desired to reduce the fluorescence and reflection of any substance on the background other than the cells. Today, glass with reduced fluorescence is used, but the fluorescence and reflection of the glass itself exist to such a degree that they are still explicitly detectable.
As described above, for cell proliferation, the cells must be made to adhere to the surface of a substrate. For this purpose, it is practiced to coat the substrate (for example, the inner bottom surface of a glass or plastic cell culture dish) with a suitable substance (poly-L lysine or collagen or the like) or chemically modify it with a certain kind of residue (for example, an amino group) so that the cells can easily adhere to it. As is generally recognized, a substrate for biological specimen observation must have a surface to which cells can easily adhere, or must have surface treatable to provide such a surface.